Without drawing much attention to himself, Hussey has made 137 runs and been dismissed once in four innings leading into tonight's semi-final against the West Indies.

He has made those runs in Shane Watson's shadow, but is still striking at 120 runs per 100 balls, and without his composure in a crisis the whole castle would have come crashing down against Pakistan on Tuesday.

''That's exactly why we've given him the role at No. 3,'' said captain George Bailey, who believes Hussey has fooled the competition into thinking he's not doing as much damage as he really is.

''Probably a little bit like [Sri Lankan captain Mahela] Jayawardene, he's just so dangerous. He is someone who, you might not be feeling like he's hurting you but suddenly you look up at the scoreboard and he has just ticked along. More importantly, it seems whenever they're batting, the partnership motors along.

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''It's a bit of bluff. For what his strike rate is, he'd be pretty damaging. When he does need to, he's very, very good at finding boundaries. What he's really good at is making them look less risky than the rest of us.''

Hussey was pushed up to No. 3 in the Caribbean earlier this year, in a break from the finishing role in which he built his reputation as one of the world's most dangerous limited-overs players.

''He has done a lot of his T20 batting for Australia at six, but in terms of what we want from him, if he can bat around a Davey Warner or a Shane Watson, the way he builds his innings and builds a partnership, it makes perfect sense,'' Bailey said.

Australia's recent thrashing in an ODI series in England, when Hussey stayed home for family reasons, demonstrated how crucial he remains to the team in all formats, and how the emerging generation of batsmen have struggled to replicate his seamless way of changing the pace of his innings.

The same concern exists in Tests, where no young batsman has been able to build a convincing case to push either of the middle-order veterans, Hussey or Ricky Ponting, out of the team.

It's more difficult to judge the young batsmen in Twenty20, in which there is a constant sense of urgency, and Bailey said this could work in Glenn Maxwell's favour despite the temptation to call on the experience of David Hussey for the business end of the tournament. ''That's probably the only spot to be weighed up,'' he said.

Bailey accepted the blame for Maxwell's brash shot against Pakistan, having not told him that the team had shifted its focus to the smaller target needed to confirm a place in the semi-finals.

''If you want structure and sensible batting and what-not, there's five guys who have played more T20 cricket than he has who need to provide that,'' Bailey said.

''What we want from him is an ability to turn the game.

''Make what you will of his shot the other night, I maintain that it was just poor communication on our behalf.

''. .. Maxy's ability to play a match-turning innings can't be under-estimated.''